The Healing Animal

The Healing Animal is a documentary about animal-assisted psychotherapy and the process of gender transition. The client we follow is Charlee, a 25-year-old transgender college student who moved to Colorado to escape gender persecution and seek legal rights to gender marker and name change as well as gender reassignment surgeries. The Healing Animal is unique in that it combines several topics into one story: actual psychotherapy sessions filmed over the course of a year, the legal, physical and emotional process of gender transition, LGBTQIA+ rights, and exploring the science behind animal-assisted psychotherapy. 

                                     
"This film documents actual client sessions with an interesting and engaging young adult, dealing with issues surrounding gender reassignment. It demonstrates some of the myriad ways that animals of many different species, can be integrated into the psychotherapy process. While sessions are conducted by a psychotherapist, the animal(s) play an integral role in assisting the client to find, explore and change aspects of herself that allow them to be happier and truer to themselves. There’s nothing like this film; for anyone curious about animal-assisted psychotherapy or counseling with animals, this is an excellent insider’s view." — Director of Animal Assisted Therapy Programs of Colorado, Linda Chassman Craddock   

Beeson's documentary films focus on topics of animal and social welfare. His films have been screened at film festivals worldwide and on PBS. Hog Haven will be released on PBS stations nationwide in summer 2022. Beeson works in the Film and Television department at the University of Colorado in Denver. He is vegan and passionate about his many dogs.